This invention relates to backpacks, tote bags and luggage made of fabric or other pliable material, and, more specifically, to portable carriers designed to house a variety of odd-sized goods.
The designers of luggage pieces, tote bags, backpacks and similar devices which are intended to house a variety of goods of different shapes must strive to provide the maximum holding capacity within a limited space. If the contents of the carrier have to be held in separate compartments, the designers are faced with the additional problems of space and location assignment for each holding component of the carrier. The designers tasks are further complicated when the contents include items of vastly different nature, size, shape, and weight. Moreover, in many cases, the user must be able to quickly and conveniently retrieve any particular item from the container without having to handle and disturb other items. If the carrier is made of solid material such as a tool box, the most common approach has been to provide a plurality of compartments and drawers that are distributed over one or more sides of the carrier. In cases where the carrier is made of fabric or other soft, pliable material, the use of drawers is not possible. Compartmental organization must be achieved by means of an unrolling web upon which a plurality of pockets have been mounted, or the formation of pockets and holding stations by a judicious arrangement of pliable septi.
This invention results from attempts to provide sports enthusiasts, and particularly those who must have quick access to a variety of implements, with a highly organized carrier that allows easy access to any piece of equipment.
The principal and secondary objects of this invention are to provide a compact and lightweight carrier capable of holding a large variety of objects of different sizes and shapes in separate compartments that can be quickly and conveniently accessed in order to retrieve a particular item without having to shuffle through, handle, or displace any other item in the carrier.
These and other valuable objects are achieved by a portable carrier made essentially of pliable fabric in which two sets of layered, co-nesting and pocket-mounting flaps are folded around a comparted central area, the folded flaps are capped by shell-like end pieces mounted at opposite longitudinal ends of the carrier. Once the end pieces are spread open, the various flaps present themselves like the pages of a book which can be conveniently turned to provide access to pockets and straps distributed over the faces of each flap, as well as to the central area which is also subdivided in a plurality of separate holding stations.